Sensor Measures Snow Weight and Sends Alerts

For the past year, Chris Dundorf, President of 2KR Systems, has been working with a team of students and professors at the University of New Hampshire Manchester to create a prototype for the SnowSentry, a sensor and monitoring station that measures the weight of snow loads. By this summer, he hopes to have the devices ready to be deployed on the rooftops of strip malls, big-box stores, warehouses and school roofs -- any large structure with a flat roof and destiny with heavy snow.

Forest Journal: More albedo can be a pretty cool thing

"I remember putting a dime and a penny on the dashboard of the car in the sun. My mom would reach for the dime, and I'd tell her to wait, that I was conducting an experiment. The copper penny would get warmer faster than the shiny dime." And thus Liz Burakowski dates her fascination with the "albedo" back to when she was 5 or 6 years old.

How One Student Went from Great Bay Community College to Researching Vibrio at UNH

Tea Partiers and traditional Republicans are split on science

It is very common these days to hear references to Republicans having conflicts with science. But if a new study just out in the journal Environmental Politics is correct, the conflict between "Republicans" and the scientific community may really boil down to a conflict between scientists and today's so-called Tea Party. The paper suggests that on a large array of scientific topics, members of the Tea Party diverge markedly from more traditional members of the GOP.

Collaborative Project Tackles Problem of Closed Shellfish Flats

With fecal bacterial contamination and naturally occurring Vibrio pathogens on the rise, there’s a lot working against the economic viability of Maine and New Hampshire’s shellfish flats. And the growing problem raises the specter of serious public health consequences.

Students Find Common Ground, Language Through STEM

The Oyster is Their World

UNH's research associate professor Steve Jones is looking at environmental conditions that favor Vibrio parahaemolyticus, a pathogenic strain commonly found in oysters. He hopes to one day be able to tell fisherman when it is safe to harvest and when not to.

News

NH Fish and Game, in collaboration with other agencies and organizations, is updating the NH Wildlife Action Plan. Biologists, land use experts, land protection advocates, hunters, fishermen, birders, paddlers, snowmobilers and skiers - all who work in or enjoy the outdoors - have an opportunity to weigh in on the plan for protecting wildlife species and habitats for the next decade.

Five input sessions are being held around the state in April and May to gather ideas for actions from people who are closely connected with, and concerned about, protecting wildlife and habitats. We invite you to share your concerns about wildlife and help make the revised NH Wildlife Action Plan an even more useful and informative guide for 2015-2025!

Jonathon Loos, a graduate student in Plymouth State University’s Master
of Science program in Environmental Science and Policy and the Center for the Environment, has been awarded the American Rivers’
Anthony A. Lapham River Conservation Fellowship. This fellowship honors
the memory of Anthony A. Lapham who served for many years on the board
of American Rivers, including as its Chairman.The Fellowship provides an excellent professional development opportunity for talented post-graduates pursuing careers as leaders in the field of conservation advocacy.

For the past year, Chris Dundorf, President of 2KR Systems, has been working with a team of students and professors at the University of New Hampshire Manchester to create a prototype for the SnowSentry, a sensor and monitoring station that measures the weight of snow loads. By this summer, he hopes to have the devices ready to be deployed on the rooftops of strip malls, big-box stores, warehouses and school roofs -- any large structure with a flat roof and destiny with heavy snow.

The Snow Group watches how the surface albedo of the snowpack changes over time. We may not think about it, but pollutants are carried with the air and deposited in and on top of the snowpack, where they may impact albedo. Having a day-by-day 360-degree view of the sample sites will hopefully provide enough visual clues as to what has happened over the last day, and assist in interpreting changes in the data.

Events

A session at this year’s Maine Sustainability & Water Conference will look at how changes in coastal water quality are affecting – or projected to affect – beaches and shellfish beds in Maine and New Hampshire. Led by NEST researchers Kathleen Bell, UMaine and Kevin Gardner, UNH, presenters will discuss what new tools, methods, data, and collaborative approaches are available to help anticipate changes, understand the impacts of these changes, and guide regional and local responses to these changes.

The 2015 Maine Sustainability & Water Conference will be held on Tuesday, March 31 at the Augusta Civic Center, Augusta, ME. Registration is $45 and includes lunch and admission to all sessions.

The SCI-New England Spring 2015 Regional Meeting will be held on Saturday, April 18, 2015 at Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester, New Hampshire. The meeting will run from 8:00 AM - 3:30 PM. Breakfast and lunch will be served.

Nominate an adult, student, business, or non-profit organization for the Aquarion Environmental Champion Award. Awards will go to outstanding volunteer projects that have improved or protected New Hampshire's natural resources.

Check It Out

The Data Discovery Center
(DDC) is a digital library that provides access to a broad suite of data sets
generated by the New Hampshire and Maine EPSCoR programs. Current holdings
include atmospheric, aquatic, and terrestrial sensor data, imagery, model
results, and survey data, in support of the Ecosystems and Society Project, the
New England Sustainability Consortium (NEST), and the Ecosystems Computing
Challenge (ECC).

Want to help with science research on behalf of the environment? Citizen science projects need your help - counting species, monitoring water and weather and more. Sort by state, how much time you can spend, or topic to find the best project for you!

The Business and Industry Association’s new strategic economic plan for
the state concludes that one of the best investments New Hampshire can
make for a prosperous future is to develop a highly skilled workforce —
one that is especially in tune with our burgeoning advanced
manufacturing and high-tech sectors.